John Newton

son of Humphrey Newton of Oundle in Northamptonshire, and he the second son of Joh Newt. in Axmouth in Devo [•] sh. was born in Northamptonshire, became a Communer of S. Edm. Hall in Mich. term 1637, aged 15 years, took the degree of Bach. of Arts in 1641, and in the year following was actually created Master of that faculty among several Esquires, Gentlemen and Soldiers that belonged to the K. and Court then residing in this University. At which time his genie being naturally inclined to Mathematicks and Astronomy, he, by continual industry, made great proficiency in them, which he found advantageous to him in the times of Usurpation. After his Majesties return he was actually created Doct. of Div, made one of the Kings Chaplains, and Rector of Rosse in Herefordshire, in the place, I think, of Mr. Joh. Tombes ejected; which he kept to his dying day. He hath written these things following, mostly printed in qu.

Astronomia Britannica. Exhibiting the doctrine of the Sphere, and theory of Planets decimally by Trigonometry and by Tables, &c. in 3 parts. Lond. 1656. 57. qu.

Help to calculation, with tables of Declinat. Ascensions, &c. Lond. 1657. qu.

Trigonometria Britannica: shewing the construction of the natural and artificial Sines, Tangents, and Secants, and table of Logarithms, and the use of the said Canon in the resolution of all Triangles, plain or spherical, &c. in two books. Lond. 1658. fol. one composed by our author Newton, the other translated from the lat. copy of Hen. Gellibrand.

Chiliades centum logarithmorum. Printed with the former.

Geometrical Trigonometrie, &c. Lond. 1659.

Mathematical Elements, in three parts. Lond. 166 [•] . 63. qu.

A perpetual Diary or Almanack.—Engraven on copper, and printed on one side of a sheet of paper, 1662.

Description of the use of the Carpenters Rule. Lond. 1667.

Ephemerides: or Diary shewing the interest and rebate of money at six per cent. &c. Lond. 1667.

The scale of interest: or the use of decimal fractions, &c. part 2. Lond. 1668. oct.

School pastime for young Children: or an easie and delightful method for the teaching of Children to read English directly. Lond. 1669. oct.

Art of practical gauging of casks and Brewers tuns, &c. Lond. 1669.

Introduction to the Art of Logick. Lond. 1670. 78. in tw.

Introd. to the Art of Rhetorick. Lond. 1671. in tw, which as to its form and method, is the same with that of Ch. Butler, and for invention and disposition, with that of the first part of Mich. Radau’s Orator extemporaneus. But these two Introductions, I presume, are, or at least most part of them, involved in The English Academy that follows.

The Art of natural Arithmetick in whole numbers and fractions, vulgar and decimal, &c. Lond. 1672. oct.

The English Academy: or, a brief Introduction to the seven liberal Arts, Grammar, Arithmetick, Geometry, Musick, &c Lond. 1677. oct. Most of which Arts having before been published singly by themselves, are in this book epitomized, and chiefly intended for the instruction of young Scholars, who are acquainted with no other than their native language.

Cosmographie: or a view of the terrestial and celestial Globes, in a brief explanation of the principles of plain and solid Geometrie, &c. Lond. 1679 oct.

Introduction to Astronomie, in two parts.

Introd. to Geography.—These two are printed with the Cosmography. This learned, but capricious and humerous person, Dr. Newton, died at Rosse before mentioned, on the day of the Nativity of our Saviour, in sixteen hundred seventy and eight,1678. and was buried in the chancel of the Church there under the south wall, as I have been informed by a Gentleman of the neighbourhood in those parts. He had an elder brother named Humph. Newton Bach. of the Civ. Law, and sometimes Fellow of Alls. Coll. who dying on the 6 of Sept. 1659, was buried in the Chappel of that College. Besides the said Joh. Newton, I find another, M. of Arts, sometimes Fellow of Clare Hall in Cambr. and afterwards Vicar of S. Martins Ch. in Leycester, author of a Sermon intit. The penitent recognition of Josephs Brethren, &c. Lond. 1684. quart.